Blue cats and warm water discharges

I have been fishing for Blues for a couple years, you put me on the river and chances are I can find some blues fairly easy, my question is has anyone had alot of luck catching them around warm water discharges? I have caught a few, and seen some nice ones caught around me, but its usually just alot of channels. Anyone have a take on this? Is there different presentations perhaps that work better? I usually fish off of a concrete wall right above one of the discharges, given the wall is only a couple feet high, and its very turbulent, so I usually cast out away from the discharge, and normally just a no roll above a swivel, and a 12 to 18 inch leader below with a 8' gama circles. I have used slip floats to drift around the water and have nailed some nice stripers, channels, and small flatheads, but no blues that way. Thanks all

We catch Blues out in the main lake just out of the hot discharge channel . In the deeper holes around 30' to 40' . The water surface temp is usally in the mid 70 deg in the dead of winter there. Very slight current and we fish down current with the warmer water never above the warm water .You can watch the temp go way down above the hot water discharge. I dont think the blues really go to far up in the hot hole canal .Maybe a little to warm to quick for them I dont know .Hope this helps.:wink:

Yes, big Blue cats will venture into the discharges on the Ohio. We have caught several Blues over 25 lb. in the warm water. I caught my PB, a 50 lb. Blue in the middle of a discharge. I think it has a lot to do with the bait fish. If the shad or skips are in there, there's a good chance that the Blues will follow.

Cool thanks, I was wondering that myself, the water temp here in this discharge is about the same. Its actually a fairly large channel that flows right into the river. Its hard to say, I have had fish on back there I couldnt even turn around no matter how hard I tried, I know they were big blues, or maybe even flats...We'll see, not having a boat makes it hard to get to far from the discharge since most of the access is right on top of it...We'll see what happens, thanks for the advice.:wink:

Thanks skipjack I was responding to another when you posted, thats great news for sure. The year before last this place was swarming with baitfish, and I mean thick! Last year not so much, I think the tempature took alot longer to cool down last year than this year so its looking up. It took till Feburary to even get a descent bite there last year...Good feeling about this trip though..:roll_eyes:

i fish a hot water discharge from nuke one at russelville arkansas and i catch a lot of blues more so than channels but i dont fish right in the discharge.i fish about 1/4 mile from the discharge.still have currant but not as fast.

I have found that most everyone on here is right in stating that mostly channels are caught close to these discharges and the occasional small blue. I like to fish the discharges in February,March and sometimes April with a shorter leader. A no roll sinker with about a 10 to 12 inch leader is what I use and I can load up on the eatin size fish. I have found most of the "Big Blues" in the deeper water on the edge of the drop off. I hope you find this useful!